A Texan conservative Anglican -- yes, a square peg -- ponders both churchly and worldly things and enjoys his new church.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Pelosi and Other House Democrats: Amend Trash the First Amendment

I am not making this up. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and
other House Democrats want a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens
United decision and put free speech under the control of Congress.

Of course, the First Amendment as upheld
by the Citizens United decision is simple and broad for a
reason.Once you turn Freedom of
Speech into “Free speech for me, but not for thee,” you don’t have free speech
at all, but something akin to what you have in Venezuela or Cuba, where only
favored speech is free, if it can be called that.

And that is exactly what these Democrats
are aiming for. They wish to
muzzle corporations and “special interests” while letting their union buddies
continue to extort massive amounts of union dues from workers (which they can
do in those states that do not have right-to-work laws) and funnel them to elect
Democrats who will favor unions.
Yes, incestuous. By the
way, the recall elections in Wisconsin are about union anger at Gov. Scott
Walker saying no to this gravy train.

And if the Democrats ever get control over
political speech, they will muzzle those entities that oppose them while
letting unions continue their use of forced dues in elections (which is itself
a violation for free speech). And
that’s for starters.

“Free speech for me, not for thee.”

Those who have thought those accusing
Democrats of being hostile to the Constitution are overwrought or paranoid may
apologize in the comments. Yes, I
am forgiving.

I will give these Democrats credit for one
thing, however. At least they get
the process right this time. If
one wants to change the Constitution, the way to do that is through amending
the Constitution, not through the usual Democrat practice of ignoring it or
getting judges to trash it.

Of course, the reason they want to amend
the Constitution is because Citizens United will not let
them ignore or trash the Constitution in this area for now. And they want to amend it to rig the political process and to attack
freedom, not protect it. But
credit where credit is due and all that.

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Housekeeping: Yes, this post looks slightly different because Google/Blogger changed their blog editor, about which I am not entirely pleased. I might tinker with this. Suggestions are welcome.